A Hechinger’s Summer

Do you
remember what it was like when you were seven and it was
summer? Do you recall your child hood friends and what you
did every day? I would go to sleep at night and being so
anxious to play some more, that I would close my eyes and a
moment later it would be morning.

I remember getting up to
the sound of hearing kids playing out side, running out the
front door with my bow and arrow in hand and sending an
arrow two houses down, into the spears palm tree nearly
missing their cat. Only then realizing I was still in my
pajamas.

But on my
block just across the street from me lived the Hechinger’s.
Their yard was not just another yard to play in but it was
like going to Disneyland, particularly, Tom Sawyers island.
First it was so large that they rented out four other houses
on the property. And in between those houses were the maids
building and a huge rumpus room that became the pool house
when they put in the pool, the first people on the block to
have a pool. In fact they had a pool before that but by the
time I entered the scene it was full of trash. It was made
of cement and built above ground just 16 by 6’ across and
about 4’ high I never saw anything like before or since.
Next to the pool was a pond with a water fall and a small
bridge now all filled in with debris as Mr. Hechinger said
one day, when we tried to revive it, “leave it alone we
filled it in because it bred mosquitoes.” There were paths
that went every which way and areas where there was nothing
but fruit trees growing, you name it apricot, peach, apples
and even a fig tree.

Next to that was the play
yard with an old decrepit jungle gym that had seen better
days, which over the summer would become many things
depending on what popular motion picture or TV show was
currently playing in the theaters or on TV. It became the
Alamo when the movie Davy Crocket “King of the Wild
Frontier” was playing and you would find us re-enacting it
on that jungle gym. There were so many plastic cowboy and
army men killed, disfigured and or melted in that yard that
I believe even today if you went and dug around a little you
would fine some plastic body parts still there.

Now the Hechinger’s were a
family of 6. The oldest brother having already moved out
having become an attorney. Albert the next oldest still
living at home but in high school, then Joey a year younger
than me and lastly Michael the most carrying and
thoughtfulness of the bunch. They almost lost him one day
while driving in their dads Cadillac. He was playing with
the doorknob and the door opened and he nearly ended up in
the street but for the fast work of their dad who reached
around and grabbed him by the nap of the neck. Seat belts
and rear door child locks had not been invented yet. They
solved that problem by simply removing the rear door
handles.

Albert was
always trying to get Joey and me to fight. Joey was one of
those kids that had to act tough and even though I was older
and could probably beat him in a fight. But my best
attribute, when in danger, was the ability to outrun anyone,
even my dad, and I got pretty good at doing just that when
in need. Later in Junior high and high school I led to me
doing pretty good at track.

But one day
while Albert was trying to get us to fight I used a notable
cuss word, punched Joey in the nose and ran home. Weeks
later when their new pool had been completed I returned.
Only to be sent in to see Mrs. Hechinger, who did not want
to hear anything about how Albert was trying to get us to
fight. She just wanted an apology for the cuss word, which
she reluctantly received.

One night though I was
going to do a sleep over and Joey and I were going to stay
in the building that used to house the live in maid and
butler, who they no longer had on live in status. As the
night progressed though I found it creepy to be in that
room. The bed had been covered with hard plastic to protect
it and every time you moved it would make noise. It also had
the strange odor of Ivory soap and I could feel the presence
of the people who had been their servants. They did not seem
to be all that happy to live there and neither did I. I did
not spend the night.

But the other memory I had
about that particular building was about Henry, cousins to
the Hechinger’s. He lived just across the street in a less
then opulent house and the same age as Albert. He was taking
the girl who lived in one of the Hechinger houses on a date.
Dottie was quite attractive, well endowed

and seemed like a pleasant enough
person, but it was a pool date and it was after dark. As
Albert, Joey, Michael and I quietly snuck through the maid’s
quarters to have a peek we saw them in the pool embracing,
kissing and generally gyrating.

Now for Joey, Michael and
me, we just wanted to keep watching but for some reason this
incensed Albert and before I knew it we were in the living
room reporting what we saw to Mrs. Hechinger. Albert saying
that they might be getting some sort of love juices in the
pool water or something akin to that. Joey, Michael and I
just want to go back and watch just a little bit longer.

But summer went like that,
adventure after adventure. One day Michael and his cousin
decided to make a parachute out of an old blanket and try it
out by jumping off the roof. Even I thought that was a bad
idea.

You could spend hours
though in their yard walking the different cement paths that
went from here to there and in between all kinds of fruit to
eat and things to see. I would wonder what they were
thinking when they designed the place, I never saw their
parents ever eat a piece of fruit. The tennis court had also
seen better days and now was not even good enough to ride
bicycles on.

Then one day while Joey and
I were sitting in the tree house we had made that previous
summer in their fig tree and enjoying some figs, I looked
over to the back house and there was a new family moving in
with two attractive daughters, Shirley and Elaine and they
were near my age. In fact as luck would have it they would
be going to Betsy Ross Elementary School with me. And
Elaine, the cutest of the two, would be in my class.

A strange feeling came over
me that day though when I saw them move in. Because that
house was the most dilapidated house I had ever seen. And I
just had this feeling of sympathy for her that she would
have to live there. It was an old clapboard building that
might have originally had a dirt floor and the foundation
just laid on the ground. Some said it was once a chicken
coop. They were so poor that they used old curtains for
doorways. It was the first of the houses to be torn down
many years later.

Being the Italian stallion
that I was I wanted to get to know them a little better. But
Joey went into his show off mode and their mother stepped in
and it was clear that was not going to happen. My sister and
the older girls on the block though became friends and hung
out with them, brought them food and old clothes as they
were dirt poor. We only got messages of what was going on in
there. Apparently the mother was very cool and would make
popcorn for the girls in a frying pan, the popcorn spilling
over the stove. My popcorn also spills all over the stove
even with the right pan. Now I always hated in the middle of
summer to hear TV adds about going back to school, buying
clothes and supplies. I just didn’t want to be reminded of
summer ending and having to go back to Betsy Ross
Elementary. But well, this summer was different. It was the
first summer I was actually looking forward to going back to
school because I new Elaine would be in my class.

Well we did
it, we have now been in business for 30 years. And things
have sure changed since we started in that tiny 600 square
foot shop we started out in down the street. VCR’s had just
become affordable and projections TV sets weren’t. There
were still a lot of tube TV sets still being used. And there
were still many American manufactures of TV sets and they
were made right here in the USA. Service shops of all kinds
were thriving all across the country from lawn mower,
air-conditioning, to film cameras. But who new that would
all change and 50% of the service companies would go under.
What happened?

NAFTA
happened, that and other trade agreements, that made it easy
for our larger manufactures to move there plants to where
ever there was cheap labor and freely export the product
back into the USA with out having to pay a tariff. That was
what used to protect the American worker and small
businesses against products made with virtually slave labor.
And then Wal-mart entered the picture and we threw quality
out the window and got the lowest price instead. So if we
disappear someday you will know why.

And what did
we the people get out of all this? Badly made products that
don’t last very long before needing to be serviced. Zenith
used to say, “The quality goes in before then name goes on.”
Well the first TV set we received from Mexico, the label had
fallen off. By the way, Zenith is the last partly owned
American TV manufacture all though they are called LG now.
They still do the engineering but the product is made
elsewhere. Why they dropped the Zenith name is something
only their over paid executives can answer.

And what do
you do about this? Well, before you throw something away
have it checked first by someone who knows. What you replace
it with may be even worse then what you have now.

And not all repairs are
expensive. In fact we have found that 60% of broken VCRs,
DVDs and CDs just need a good cleaning and lubing. Would you
throw your car away because it got dirty? And if you want to
help small business of all kinds take the time to give them
a positive review on YELP or Angies list. Yelp is free and
you don’t have to be a member of Angies list to leave a
review. Doing that for your favorite stores, restaurants and
service centers helps them stay in business and helps put
the dogs out of business so we all benefit from that.

The newsletterRemember if you don’t want to
miss one of our news letters since we can not afford to send
them to all 12000 people on our mailing list every time,
just friend ARC TV on face book or twitter @arctvart and
whenever we put out another letter it will be announced and
posted on our web site for you to read. Or you can then
stop by the shop for a hard copy. You can also send us your
email address and be on our email list. Those of you on
either or both will be able to receive occasional specials
we may offer as well. The advantage too is if you move out
of the area you can always get it. Please let us know if you
want to be off it or we are sending you duplicates.

Our first info commercial

We did our first info commercials
recently and they can be seen on our web site arctv.net.

Art work

And those of you who have appreciated
my art work over the years; An art book publisher has done a
110 page hardcover book with a autobiography of my life and
some 118-color photos. It is titled, “Assembled in
America,” A retrospective, the first 50 years. The cover
photo of the book also won a contest for book cover photos
on an art web site called Fine Art America. Copies will soon
be available on line and then later at the shop. The web
site about it will be up and running very soon at;
http://www.photobookmaker.com/collections/all-products or
you can freind them on Facebook.

I will be publishing an
updated version of my book of short stories with all the
newest ones soon as well. There are a few copies left of the
first edition for you first addition book collectors out
there.

And you can
find a documentary that was done about me and my art on
YouTube. The video was done by Karen M.C. Kane and Kurt St.
Thomas for an international Documentary contest that is run
each year. Just YouTube Czappa or “City of Lost Parts,” and
you will find all of our YouTube videos.

Remember that
if you do not back up your videotapes some day your
camcorder is going to break. And some camcorders like 8mm,
Digi 8 are no longer made. But we still maintain all of the
necessary units so we can save all of those home movies for
you. We can even copy movies from your cell phone. And
remember we are one of the few shops to transfer audio as
well, reel to reel, records, cassette and even 8 track.

We are offering
in this newsletter only an opportunity to do video copies
and audio copies for 25% off

for a
limited time. You can purchase
Vouchers now and use it for the next six months. For
8mm and super 8 movie film to DVD transfers we are offering
10% off. Just come in, call or email us and will send you
the voucher. Two per customer and after the six months they
are still good but only for the cash value.

One of our
competitors offered a special recently for tape duplication,
but after figuring out the discount the

people who
bought them were paying the same as our everyday price on
duplication.

TVs & Plasma, LCD All sizes,
makes and models of TVs. Big screen and projection TVs. We
do home service calls or bring it in and save. We offer
pick up and delivery at a nominal charge too. We also
install Plasma and LCD TV sets on walls.

VCRs & DVDs All makes
including 3/4" professional machines and time lapse. From
head cleaning to a full rebuilding, our service is fast and
efficient. One day DVD & VCR cleaning.

Stereo & Audio
All makes and models serviced. CDs, cassettes, tuners &
amps. We also specialize in repairing record players and
tube amps too. We fix speakers and answering machines.

Microwaves We repair
all makes and models of microwave ovens and do house calls
on built-ins.

Antennas & HDTV We repair
and install antennas, repair and run inside cable lines, and
hook up TVs, VCRs, stereos and surround sound systems. We
are HDTV antenna experts.

Sales New and Used We sell new
and rebuilt TVs, VCRs, and stereo equipment. We are a
Zenith, LG, Toshiba, Mitsubishi dealer and sell Pioneer and
many other makes. Check our prices on Plasma and LCD HDTVs.
Our prices are competitive with the big guys and our
equipment is most often newer and fresher.